Saving Lives

After surviving three tours and 19 months in Iraq and Afghanistan,
combat-tested Marine Lance Cpl. Joseph Barrios returned home and
almost died on the Brooklyn campus of Kingsborough Community
College in May of 2009.

Feeling lightheaded, he fell down a flight of steps on his way to
the Marine and Academics Building in the middle of the afternoon.
"The next thing I knew, I was on the floor, and I was having
trouble breathing. Everything was blurry," said Barrios, who
suffers from asthma.

Kingsborough student Joseph Barrios credits Peace Officers Ahmed, left, and Lopez with saving his life after he collapsed on these stairs from an asthma attack.

No one was in sight, but there was an emergency button located low
on the wall. He crawled and pressed it to summon help from the
college's public safety office.

"I was able to say I was having trouble breathing. Right after that
I collapsed and stopped breathing," he said. "The last thing I
remember before I went unconscious was seeing two campus officers
flying down the stairs to my rescue. They were assisting me with
breathing, speaking with me, trying to keep me awake."

"They were extremely prepared, very ready, very calm and
professional," said Barrios, 23, a criminal justice major who
intends to become an FBI agent. "What these officers did for me
that day was nothing short of heroic. I owe them my life."

For Ahmed and Lopez it was all in a day's work.

"It was just part of what we're supposed to do," Lopez said. "We do
that all the time." But Lopez was also driven to save a young man
who she'd learned had served his country. She told Ahmed, "He just
came back from Afghanistan, and I didn't want him to die here."

Because such valiant actions often go unsung, the CUNY Department
of Public Safety honored Ahmed, Lopez and 39 other officers in its
University-wide force of 650 peace officers in a ceremony at the
Graduate Center on January 29. Amid colleagues, family members and
CUNY administrators, the men and women in blue uniforms received
citations and medals for their life-saving rescues and other
interventions. They had shown extraordinary bravery, saved life at
personal risk, used exceptional good judgment and exceeded the
job's requirements during 2009.

Such recognition "gives them more pride in their job and creates
better morale," said William Barry, a retired FBI special agent who
is director of CUNY's Public Safety Department. "All the
individuals presented awards have risen above the crowd. I felt it
was time to go back to a recognition program for the entire
University." Previously, individual campuses have honored their own
heroes.

Barry described one "act of bravery and quick thinking" last July
3, when a fire erupted near midnight in a high-rise apartment
building on Convent Avenue, opposite City College's Baskerville
Hall.

"We split up to knock on doors," Sgt. Copeland said. "We made sure
people came out of their apartments. Some were very resistant, some
were frantic, running back and forth. They slammed doors in our
faces, but we still went on. We gave first aid to those with smoke
inhalation. One young lady was having an asthma attack. We kept
them in a spot off the street where they could cool down, and we
spent more than an hour with them."

Other officers at Bronx, Hostos and Borough of Manhattan Community
Colleges, as well as Brooklyn College and New York City College of
Technology, were recognized for averting suicides, reviving an
unconscious professor, assisting a student who was having a seizure
and helping police apprehend suspects in off-campus incidents in
which college personnel were victims.

There were unit citations recognizing exceptional service to the
campus and community by the volunteer, 10-member EMT unit at
Brooklyn College, and for dedication, motivation and
resourcefulness by the six EMTs at Baruch College. The six-member
staff of the Public Safety Training Academy was cited for expanding
the training curriculum from 165 to 380 hours.

In-service training and remission of college tuition provide
opportunities for campus peace officers to "rise to the top," Barry
said. For example, Cpl. John McWilliams, 34, of City Tech, an EMT
honored for performing life-saving CPR on an elderly man who went
into cardiac arrest, is among those who rose through the ranks. He
moved up from college security assistant to campus peace officer,
EMT, and his current status.

Barry said the University began the process of professionalizing
its security force in the aftermath of a 1991 tragedy when an
outside promoter overbooked a weekend concert at City College and
nine concert-goers died in a stampede. Twenty years later, Barry
said, the University maintains a professionalized force of
approximately 650 peace officers, 200 college security assistants,
and another 200 contract guards.

University Director for Public Safety William Bary gave awards to Celisha Copeland and other Campus Peace Officers at a recent ceremony.

CUNY transformed the former Security Department, an agency staffed
chiefly with contract guards, into a professional Public Safety
Department, staffed by peace officers empowered to make arrests and
falling under the jurisdiction of the state Department of Criminal
Justice Services. Most campus public safety units are headed by
people with prior law enforcement experience who report to Barry.
For example, Ed Moss, director of public safety at the Borough of
Manhattan Community College, is a retired Port Authority Police
lieutenant who once was night commander of its 911 rescue and
recovery operation. Unit heads have a working relationship with
local precincts.

Public Safety units operate 24 hours a day, year-round. In December
alone, they responded to 600 incidents. The officers are first
responders, all trained in first aid and cardiopulmonary
resuscitation (CPR). They control access to buildings; monitor
alarms, cameras and closed-circuit TV; patrol in marked cars,
bicycles, Segways and three-wheeled vehicles; and, when necessary,
break up fights.

Prospective public safety officers must be 21, high school
graduates, U.S. citizens and have a valid New York State driver's
license. They must pass a background check, a written exam and
psychological and physical agility tests.

The screening and training pay off.

One afternoon last March, Nancy Oley, a psychology professor at
Medgar Evers College, began to choke on a peanut butter sandwich in
her office during a classroom break. "I was in a rush. I took a
really big bite, and I realized very quickly that it was not going
down. I couldn't breathe. I realized I had 60 seconds to get help
before I lost consciousness."

She ran to the security desk at the building's entrance, hands
crossed at her neck to signify choking. Campus Peace Officer Minnie
Thigpen was on duty.

"I mouthed the word 'peanut butter,' and she got it right away,"
Oley related. "I was counting on her. I knew they had training and
I'd seen them in operation in other emergencies."

Thigpen, 53, performed the Heimlich maneuver and dislodged a piece
of food. Thigpen sat Oley down and brought her a glass of warm
water. Breathing again, a thankful Oley returned to her class.

"Her skill and calm saved my life, for which I and my family are
deeply grateful," Oley said. "Perhaps it was all in a day's work
for her, but for me it was a life-transforming experience," she
wrote to the college's public safety director, Elvert Miller, a
former U.S. Marine and a veteran of Iraq Operations Desert Storm
and Desert Shield. Oley added in her letter: "I want to thank her
and the other members of your staff who work tirelessly and often
without acknowledgement to keep us safe every day."

Thigpen, a former police officer assigned to the city's Human
Resources Administration, said, "I just thank God for using me as
an instrument to save someone's life."

Like his colleagues, McWilliams is proud of being part of CUNY's
Public Safety system. "We do our jobs so well," he remarked,
although "a lot of people don't know what we really do."